Voiced retroflex affricate

Voiced retroflex affricate
ɖ͡ʐ
d͡ʐ
IPA number	106 (137)
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɖ͡ʐ
Unicode (hex)	U+0256 U+0361 U+0290
X-SAMPA	dz`
Kirshenbaum	dz.
Image
Sound
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The voiced retroflex affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɖ͡ʐ ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨dʐ ⟩.^[1] It occurs in such languages as Polish (the laminal affricate dż) and Northwest Caucasian languages (apical).

Features [edit]

Features of the voiced retroflex affricate:

Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Belarusian	лічба	[lʲiɖ͡ʐba]	'number'	See Belarusian phonology
Polish^[2]^[3]	dżem	[d͡ʐɛm] (help·info)	'jam'	Transcribed /dʒ/ by most Polish scolars. See Polish phonology
Northern Qiang	vvdhe	[ʁdʐə]	'star'
Russian^[3]^[4]	джем	[ɖ͡ʐɛm] (help·info)	'jam'	Very rare variant, usually pronounced as 2 dedicated sounds: [dʐ]. See Russian phonology
Slovak^[5]	džús	[d͡ʐuːs]	'juice'
Torwali^[6]	?	[ɖ͡ʐiɡ̥]	'long'	Contrasts with a palatal affricate.
Yi	ꎐ rry	[d͡ʐɪ˧]	'tooth'

^ As an affricate, which is considered a double articulation by the IPA, it doesn't appear in the IPA Unicode 5.1 Chart Appendix. ⟨ʐ ⟩ appears as 137, but unlike the palato-alveolar and affricates, there is no unified glyph.
^ Jassem (2003:103)
^ ^a ^b Hamann (2004:65)
^ Lightner (1972:67)
^ Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
^ Lunsford (2001:16–20)

Hamann, Silke (2004), "Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 53–67, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001604
Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Lightner, Theodore M. (1972), Problems in the Theory of Phonology, I: Russian phonology and Turkish phonology, Edmonton: Linguistic Research, inc
Lunsford, Wayne A. (2001), "An overview of linguistic structures in Torwali, a language of Northern Pakistan", M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington